Arsenal winger Walcott keen to RACE New York Red Bulls star Henry

Walcott has always turned to Henry for advice and he is looking forward to their next encounter.

"He's been a great influence to me so it will be nice to see his face," Walcott told Arsenal.com. "I think he changes his phone number a lot so it's tough to keep in touch with him! So many people want a bit of him but he will always be there for me, definitely.?

"Thierry has always given me advice, telling me just to enjoy my football and not believe what people say about you. He told me just to go out and play my football and not worry about the hype. That's what I've been doing and hopefully it's working."

Henry was the quickest player in the Arsenal squad in his pomp but that changed when Walcott was signed from Southampton. The quicksilver pair never got round to arranging a proper race but Henry's tendency to drift to the left could take him into Walcott territory at Emirates Stadium.

"It will be cool, it would be nice to have a little sprint race against him!" smiled Walcott. "We never had a sprint race. I beat his time in the 40 metres but never actually raced him. We didn't want to race each other but you might see it on the pitch at the Emirates Cup!

"We'll see what happens, he goes anywhere on the pitch because he's that sort of player. I'll have to make sure he doesn't get the ball."